ABCs: Private Eye stays top of current affairs titles

Private Eye remained the leading domestic current affairs magazine in the first half of this year, despite a 1.8% year-on-year drop in circulation.

High-end news titles generally bucked the trend of declines across the consumer magazine sector in the six months to the end of June and registered steady growth.

According to figures supplied today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, fortnightly Private Eye recorded a circulation of 205,231 during the first half of 2008, a slight fall of 1.8% year on year.

Richard Ingrams' monthly The Oldie grew circulation in the first half of the year by 15.5% compared with the same period of 2007, to 28,862.

Independently published left-leaning political monthly Prospect was up 10.7% on the first half of 2007, as it registered year-on-year growth to a circulation of 27,552.

Ahead of these two titles, and second only to Private Eye in the domestic news and current affairs sector, was Dennis Publishing's The Week magazine, which grew 4.5% year on year, to 150,099.

Press Holdings' weekly Spectator magazine also grew its circulation, by 5.1% year on year, to 76,952.

The rightwing magazine's leftwing rival New Statesman did not release its circulation figures in the current round of ABCs.

Jason Cowley was appointed as New Statesman editor in May, after the previous incumbent, John Kampfner, abruptly left the magazine in February just a day before the magazine ABCs revealed a year-on-year circulation fall of 12.7% for the second half of 2007.

Overall the domestic news and current affairs magazines sector grew circulation by 2.7% year on year.

Current affairs business and finance magazines also did well in the first half of 2008.

The UK edition of the weekly Economist, published by The Economist Newspaper Limited, grew 5.6% year on year to a circulation of 182,539.

The independently published finance weekly, Money Week, registered growth of 14.9% year on year to 35,794; leaping ahead of Financial Times Group's weekly Investors Chronicle, which fell 8.9% compared to the first half of 2007 to 31,919.

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